No mailing list on your website? You’re leaving way too much money on the table!

Most websites created or maintained by people who are new to online business are missing one important piece of the marketing puzzle. Namely, follow-up through email marketing.

Of course there are other reasons websites don’t maintain mailing lists, but usually it is a result of an entrepreneur without any marketing experience. Other reasons exist though (and I’m a perpetrator in this regard), even though I’ve been selling, promoting and marketing online for the last 10 years – you’ll still find many of my websites lack a subscription box.

My reasons won’t be yours I assure you! Generally the sites I don’t actively market to via email are sites I’ve created for testing purposes – testing website traffic techniques which I report on, on even more websites. This is truly a case of ‘do what I say, not what I do’.

In the rest of this post we’ll talk about how and why to maintain a mailing list, and the variety of ways you can use an autoresponder account.

Here are a few reasons off the top of my head:

• increases your website’s value should you choose to sell it,
• assists you to make money on demand as you can continue to draw people back to your site with every email you write,
• allows you to ‘automate’ your marketing.

Just mentioning automation of marketing gets me excited about online business.

Why?

Well, once you have a fully automated system of a website in place that turns visitors into income, there’s little for an online business owner to do other than to keep the new traffic flowing or starting all over again in a different niche with a second website, a second income stream, a second business. (Sounds good right?)

Automation is the key to any successful online business – a business that doesn’t tie the entrepreneur to his/her computer. And there is no better way to automate than with an auto-responder enabled mailing list.

Granted some internet marketers have given automation a nasty connotation. The marketers who teach you to scrape other people’s website content and post spam messages to other people’s blogs.

No, not this kind of automation. This type of automated marketing I’m talking about is discontinuing any repetitive action that can be handled by a service or script. Any online business has areas that would benefit from a little automation. The key is to have the right software or service to manage the task.

When I first started my business online in 2000 I tried a number of products and signed up for a number of services that assisted in automation of a mailing list. One service shined through above all others.

Then, in 2005, I repeated the tests and trials – in a wide variety of price ranges. I had expected different results – after all, so much had changed online in five years – yet I stuck with the same service I’d chosen back in the year 2000.

There are reasons – which very few people talk about – why one service/software soars above all others tested. Affordability, versatility, deliverability, flexibility – customer support, continually upgrading servers and features, continuously working in the field to ensure best results for their customers – and on and on. Wait, another big reason – free customer support with a fast response time.

If you’re lost now and still wondering why you’d want to automate your mailing list…

Consider that you won’t have to stop at an automated mailing list. Let’s think of some creative uses for automated marketing through auto-responder services.

Your website visitor signs up. Your autoresponder files the email address in your account then:

a) displays a thank you page on your website that could show a special offer for new subscribers. (income)
b) sends out a message to your new subscriber with a special offer… (income)

Also used for:

c) an immediate customer support response. It may take you a day or two to reply personally to a customer, but they will instantly feel as though someone is working on their request for service.
d) frequently asked questions sent to the customer via email.
e) free reports with affiliate links inside.
f) product lists and descriptions, or price lists

Use your own creativity to uncover and implement similar uses and you’ll begin to see your sales increase.

Owning a mailing list is, without a doubt, the most vital and necessary tool for your business.

Dare to be different. Don’t just put a small text link or graphic on your site that reads “subscribe to my mailing list”. That will get you some subscribers, but not nearly as many as you could get with an autoresponder pop up script or exit script.

Be creative to find ways to get potential customers to sign up to your mailing list. Offer a free report, a discount on future offers – as long as it is something of definite value they will subscribe.

Here are some of the ‘enticers’ I’ve used on other websites:

• discount coupons,

• free email course,
• contest entry,
• “Members Only” access to a special area of my website.

Check out my recommended “tried, tested and true” automated marketing, autoresponder service free for 30 days. Get the script for your website and start making money with an email list right away.

Read more about effective mailing list management and email marketing techniques from Smartzville Marketing.

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